WW1 African campaign

[Bryanbowdell]

A couple of us at Wigan Wargames are having a WW1 campaign set in Africa, here is a taster of the background, written up by Pete on the Wigan Wargames forum:

http://wigan-wargames.co.uk/wiganwargames/forum_posts.asp?TID=3687

General background
The idea of this campaign is to use mine, Bryan’s & Steve’s WW1 collection of figures, terrain & models to have a series of at least five linked games using the WH Great War rules (with a few local adaptations).
We set the games as a journey by Entente British and French in a flotilla of ships up the (imaginary ) limpo River somewhere in East Africa. The flotilla will travel up the river to its entrance into the southern end of Lake Zigazaga where it will capture the German fortress which is controlling activity on the south of the lake.
Along the way the intrepid Entente forces will be faced with a number of challenging situations – and that’s just them communicating and co-operating together. They have also got to battle the dastardly Hun in a variety of scenarios.
The French forces are commanded by Contre-Amiral Jean Paul Gaultier, doubtless we’ll see him surrounded by young, muscular French sailors in stripy T shirts with pompoms on their hats. The British forces are under the firm but steady hand of Colonel ‘Chips’ Fanshawe, known affectionately by his men as’ Fanny of the DoGs’ due to his stirring exploits as a young Sub-Altern in his former regiment The Duke of Gloucester’s. The Germans have as their commander Generalmajor Gerhardt von Eagleburger known as Der Gross Fuchs- no it doesn’t mean that- it is the BigFox. We’ll see how they all live up to their billings as the games progress. Doubtless there will be some lesser characters who gain prominence in the campaign.

Results of the first round long with photos are on the forum (link above)

[Ste long 1971]

From the photos it looked quite impressive

[juergen c. olk]

Great job and scenario thanx for the pictures and story. "Heia -Safari"-"Bwana-Sukarna"

[Bryanbowdell]

Pete is the campaign master of our club!!

[Metternich]

Looking forward to updates.

[Bryanbowdell]

I'm sure there will be more Entente victories to celebrate in the coming weeks.

[Leapsnbounds]

This could be the tonic to get my WWI East African Campaign going.  Keep up the good work and keep us posted.  I surely am very interested.

[Bryanbowdell]

The next round should be in a couple of weeks.  Pete has done the background for the next game on the Wigan Wargames forum:

http://wigan-wargames.co.uk/wiganwargames/forum_posts.asp?TID=3692

[Bryanbowdell]

We played our second game in this campaign last night:  Game 2 Creighton-Smythe is in a spot of bother

background:The British explorer/geologist (spy) Cecil Creighton-Smythe has been captured by the Germans as he mapped mineral deposits (spied) on the border of German held territory.
The Germans are holding him (as a spy) at a small settlement on the banks of the Limpo river. The flotilla has been ordered to recapture him before he reveals his exploration findings (spying reports for the Entente about German dispositions).
Germans have 400 pts
Entente have the whole flotilla

1x Pl of Entente can enter via flank march. The rest must land from the river and assault through the village. Roll to see who goes first. The Germans can only start to evacuate the prisoner from 4th turn onwards. He will be uncooperative and delay this if he can. He feigns illness, roll a D6, 1-3 the Germans drag him off , 4-6 his acting is believable he delays his removal for one round. He will try to escape by attacking the guards if guarded by 2 or less Germans. Roll for as per assault rules.

Results
Creighton Smythe may be freed, a prisoner or dead. Roll D6 as below to determine which side is the winner.
If Creighton Smythe is dead roll a D6 4-6 he has a map on him. Roll a D6 1-3 is covered in blood & no use, 4-6 it gives vital information.
Creighton Smythe retained by the Germans roll a D6 on a 5-6 he has secreted a map in the house which the Entente have found, it gives vital information.
Creighton Smythe recaptured by the Entente. Roll a D6 . 1 he’s become delirious from malaria & is of no use, 2-3 he’s recovering from an attack of malaria but won’t be able to help the entente until D3 games.
4-6 he joins the flotilla as a character (captain) and provides them with vital information.

If the entente get information from him or a map he produced they learn of hidden tracks. This allows them to flank with 1 extra Pl in up to 2 future rounds.

Results:
Well the second round game lived up to its billing with the result resting on the final dice roll of the game.

The board was a German camp at the riverside village of Fir Bin Fir. The Entente flotilla of the Lucienne & LuLu and the larger boat Lucielle were moving swiftly upstream to shell the village and land troops to storm it and attempt a rescue of Creighton Smythe who was being held at a randomly selected building. The Entente forces didn't know which building.
The Germans won the roll off & went first, their light gun missing the Lucielle but the maxim raking the LuLu and in a perfect series of dice rolls riddling her steam engine immobilising her for the whole of the game.
Not letting this upset plans the Entente forces sent the Lucienne to the aid of the stricken LuLu towing her at half speed to the nearest part of the bank. This meant the troops aboard could land but all the platoons on board both vessels had to come ashore up stream of the village.
Round 2 saw some desultory German shooting and similar in return from the flotilla
Round 3 saw an upturn for the Entente, the Lucielle steamed up to the jettey and the first troops disembarked from the now beached Lucienne.
Faced with a still firing German light gun and Maxim, the gunnery from the flotilla had been very poor, the Brits declined to land the troops from Lucielle at the Jetty and elected to shoot for a further round instead. With HMGs deployed on the boats and all other guns blazing the Entente finally silenced the German HMG and light gun.
At the same time the flanking force of Senegalese were making their was through the jungle towards the German Seebatallion camp.Things were looking up for the Entente.
However round 4 was designated as the round where the Germans woke up to the danger and started to bundle Creighton Smythe out of the village. At the same time the Askari and Ruga deployed in the village taking cover in the buildings determined to hold up the Entene forces.
Rounds 5 to 7 saw the build up of Entente forces take the village whilst the Germans gathered their command and frog marched Creighton Smythe along the road towards the far table edge. The Seebatallion in an exchange of fire from their camp managed to drive back the Senegalese thus shoring up the German left flank.
In turn 7 it was clear that with the majority of Entente forces held up in the village and the flanking force having been beaten off the Germans would successfully get Creighton Smythe away. In an act of disregard for the state of Entente morale the Lucielle moved up river and fired on the German command as they exited the board, this of course included Creighton Smythe. Scoring a hit the gunners killed two askari standing either side of Creighton Smythe who on picking himself up out of the crater found there wasn't a scratch on him.
The miraculous state of affairs didn't impress the surviving Germans who grabbed the stunned Creighton Smythe and marched him off the board.
And that appeared to be that, delayed Entente forces unable to free (or kill) Creighton Smythe. However with the KAR searching the domed building where Creighton Smythe had been held there was one last throw of the dice and sure enough Steve rolled a 6 indicating that the KAR had indeed found the map Creighton Smythe had hidden in the building.
This was enough to give victory to the Entente who can now thanks to the map deploy up to 2 x platoons in flank march in 2 of the remaing 3 games.
Pictures to follow.

full campaign details at:  http://wigan-wargames.co.uk/wiganwargames/forum_topics.asp?FID=55

[pbjunky1]

The pictures are now on the forum, here's a couple of tasters to whet the appetite. Firstly the board itself.



The Lucielle, Lucienne & LuLu disembarking the troops.

[Bryanbowdell]

Pete has put the background up for our next game:

Game 3-Abdul Ahmed Mustafa Kamel cops a packet

Aboard the Lucielle Contre Amiril Gaultier sighed, folded his copy of ‘Le voix De Paris Gai’ put aside his glass of brandy and commented to his subordinate ‘ Ah le vache Eclair Zee Bosh will stop at nurthing , zay r as we speak rallying ze forces of ze infamous Mustafa Kamel, we murst stop zem’.

Meanwhile on the German side the valiant but luckless Leutenant Wankmuller has been recalled by General Major Eagleburger after failing to prevent the resupply of the flotilla and not noticing that Creighton Smythe had secreted a map in the village where he was prisoner which is now in Entente hands.

His replacement is the Germanhead of public administration for East Afrika Herr Wilhelm (Willy) Stroker . He has been dispatched to the Zanzibari settlement on the banks of the Limpo, Hous Bin Pharteen in a desperate attempt to recruit extra forces to defend the settlement of Fahrt- Gasse and the neighbouring Festung Bratwurst against the massed forces of the Entente flotilla. The Zanzibari leader Abdul Ahmed Mustafa Kamel was driving a hard bargain but Herr Stroker had things well in hand - until the arrival of the flotilla.

German : 300pts
Zanzibari : 300pts
Entente: the whole flotilla.

TheZanzibaris are not well trained and have poor quality weapons. If they stay still they only shoot once, if they move they shoot at half strength. Due to heavier calibre weapons they wound on a 3+. Mustafa Kamel has a reduced Ld range (9").

On being fired on by artillery theZanzibari must Ld test, if a casualty is caused this is an Ld test +1. If they fail they rout.

At least 1 group must rally & leave with Herr Stroker by a designated track to donate 1x group of 10 to the final game.

If the Entente forces rout all theZanzibaris off the table they deny the Germans this additional final game support.

Entente may flank with 1 platoon (or two if they use Creighton Smythe’s map).

[Barry S]

Thanks! I've always been interested in the African theatre of WW1.

Cheers,

Barry

[Marine0846]

Some interesting battles.
I sure do like the like of your terrain.
Well done.

[juergen c. olk]

That is a beautiful looking game,well done!

[Bryanbowdell]

Results : Game 3-Abdul Ahmed Mustafa Kamel cops a packet

Another excellent write up by Pete on Wigan Wargames Forum, I'm sure photos will follow

Perched on the banks of the mighty Limpo the Zanzibari settlement of Hous bin Pharteen sweltered in the growing days tropical heat. Zanzibari askari loitered around the mud brick houses whilst in the Emir’s residence the German East Afrika Public Administrator Herr Stroker was in urgent talks with Abdul Ahmed Mustafa Kamel to recruit the askari to help the Germans fight the imminent Entente assault on Festung Bratwurst.
The arrival of the flotilla brought an abrupt end to negotiations.

The table was set up as a village on a bend of the river with a small, ancient, artillery piece on each bank, one in the village and one in a ruined watch tower on the far bank. These pieces were there to encourage river traders to pay their tariffs as well as defend the settlement.
The aim of the flotilla was to force the 4x 10 Zanzibari units off the table in rout. The Germans had to leave with up to 2 x 10 units in good order. The remaining Zanzibaris and the German Seebatallion which accompanied Herr Stroker could form a rear guard.
To stop the Zanzibaris simply retiring as soon as they saw the flotilla -as if we would!-we had a rule that they could only start to retire once a unit of Entente troops was within 12”. If they were fired on by the flotilla guns they had to morale check and so might flee as a consequence of this, though they may of course rally- particularly if not under pressure from entente troops. With low , brittle, morale could the Zanzibaris fight an effective rear guard action, similarly could the Entente forces co-ordinate a naval bombardment with a landing and assault by their ground troops?

Winning the roll off the Entente went first and the LuLu and Lucielle steamed towards the village whilst the Lucienne made for the ruined watch tower. A round of shooting saw a couple of Zanzibari gunners killed. In their turn the Zanzibaris rolled a perfect round of shooting from one gun and damaged the Lucielle’s engine. This would restrict her movement to 3”, a significant handicap given that she was carrying most of the Entente troops. Fortunately Contre Amiral Gaultier had the ‘engineering’ skill, we had the characters select a skill from a list at the start of the campaign. This allowed him to spend a turn fixing the engine on an Ld roll which he did. I prefer to think that he directed an actual engineer to fix the engine rather than putting his brandy down and getting his own hands dirty!
Over the next couple of turns two platoons of Senagalese advanced from the left flank of Hous bin Pharteen (following Creighton Smythe’s map) and the Lucielle & LuLu landed the British & Indian troops on the jetty and at the banks of the river besides the village whilst the KAR disembarked from the Lucienne and destroyed the artillery on the far bank. Unable to resist the flotilla fired its guns on the Zanzibaris who were sniping ineffectively from the village. This caused two units to flee however they rallied and returned to the fight.
Whilst all this was going on Mustafa Kamel & Herr Stroker emerged from their negotiations to survey the scene. Stroker ordered the Seebatallion to form a rearguard & Kamel ordered his units to defend the village.
By round 6 particularly heavy shooting from the deck mounted HMGs had broken two zanzibari units and third was engaged in hand to hand combat by the Indians and British. The Seebatallion was trading heavy fire with the Senegalese.
At this point Herr Stroker and Mustafa Kamel retired from the village with one unit in good order.
Despite a late attempt by British troops who were now in command of the village to cause enough casualties on the remaining Zanzibari unit to make it flee the surviving Germans & Zanzibaris retired in good order.
To their credit or perhaps stupidity ( but certainly effective morale rolls) the other three Zanzibari units fought and died to man in defence of their village. There were reports that some British troops found a substantial haul of loot in one of the village houses- obviously this was what was motivating the Zanzibaris. There may well be an investigation into this by Entente commanders.